The cheating scandal which is threatening to taint the reputation of Filipino nurses abroad has prompted Philippines’ President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to order a reorganization of the government body that administers nursing board examinations.

Some members of the nursing board were accused of receiving bribes from the owner of a nursing review center in exchange for leaking some test questions.

The Vancouver based Filipino Nurses Support Group (FNSG) said that the illicit release of exam questions in the Philippines is an indication of deep problems plaguing the Philippine health care system.

The recent scandal involved leakage materials of the June 11 to 12 nursing board examinations of at least 200 questions.

“Government agencies under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are trying to hide their irresponsibility by shifting the blame on the victims themselves – the nurses/examinees,” FNSG said in a statement.

“Instead of ensuring quality nursing education and health care for the Filipino people, Arroyo is more concerned in sending them abroad as milking cows for their foreign dollar remittances.”

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration says 7,768 nurses went to work abroad in 2005, down from 12,822 in 2001. The top countries that employ Filipino nurses are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Taiwan, Ireland, the United States and Canada.

The nursing exam scandal in the Philippines is already reverberating in Canada and shining a spotlight on the nursing shortage in the country.

FNSG believes the desperation of many Filipinos to work abroad, including nurses, is a driving force behind this recent exam scandal. 

Desperate to pass the nursing exam and work abroad, many students fall victim to such scams.  Diploma mill nursing schools and review centers exploit this desperation and will do anything to compete for more students and more profits. In the end, the quality of nursing education, profession and the whole health care system suffers, FNSG said.

FNSG said once abroad, many Filipino nurses continue to face exploitation.

The group said those who come to Canada for example, are recruited through the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) since they do not earn enough immigration points as nurses.  “Despite the dire nursing shortage, they are forced to work as around-the-clock live-in caregivers who cook, clean, and care for children, elderly, and sick of Canadian families.  They become de-skilled – their personal and professional development stalled or permanently taken away by Canadian immigration and accreditation barriers that stream them into home support work, food services, warehouse jobs, and other cheap labour positions.”

FNSG believes that Filipino nurses in Canada are not free from the clutches of money-making schemes.  The group claims to have documented stories of Filipino nurses having to pay $10,000 for a private nursing refresher course rather than waiting three years in the public system. 

Some pay $6000 for a 6-month private nursing exam review program.

The exodus of health professionals in the Philippines has already prompted warnings of a “medical apocalypse” in the Southeast Asian nation.

Last year, The Asian Pacific Post reported that about 6,000 doctors in the Philippines are studying to become nurses so they can find higher-paying jobs abroad.

A doctor working in a government hospital in the Philippines earns only about 25,000 pesos (446 dollars) a month. A doctor could earn around 8,000 dollars a month while working as nurse overseas.

Over 40,000 nurses take the National Licensure exam yearly, many with the objective of going overseas.  About 15,000 nurses leave the Philippines each year to seek jobs overseas. 

Filipinos are the third largest group of immigrants to Canada, just behind the Chinese and Indians. Approximately 12,000 immigrated last year alone, Canadian officials said.

The number excludes 2,000 Filipino caregivers allowed into Canada each year under a special program that lets them become permanent residents after about three years.

Meanwhile, the British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union is asking the The federal Conservative government to investigate two B.C. health companies working in tandem to fire unionized local workers and replace them with low-wage workers from the Philippines, Colombia and South Korea.

“We find it highly inappropriate that Canadian employers are using federal and provincial immigration programs to gut existing pay and benefit standards for Canadian workers,” George Heyman, BCGEU president, says in a letter to immigration minister Monte Solberg.

“It is equally disturbing that these same employers would exploit foreign workers by paying them significantly less than Canadian workers for doing the same work,” he adds.